The UK’s Daily Mail newspaper reports today that a 17-year-old Chinese boy has sold his kidney to raise enough money to buy an iPad 2. When Xiao Zheng wasn’t able to afford the device, he decided to sell his kidney after seeing an ad on the internet that said it would pay people for their healthy kidney. According to the Mail, Zheng’s mother was “horrified†by her son’s actions, and the story has caused a furore in China.
“I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn’t have the money,†Zheng told Shenzen TV in the southern Guangdong province.
Zheng had his kidney removed at a local hospital in Chenzhou, Hunan Province at the end of April, and subsequently received 20,000 yuan (£1,884/$3080). He was well enough to leave hospital after three days, and went straight out and bought an iPad 2 and an iPhone with the money. When Zheng returned home his mother wanted to know where he had got the money from and he eventually confessed that he had sold a kidney. The Mail reports that Zheng has since had medical “complications.†Police were alerted to the matter, but could not find any of the men responsible for the operation.
Source: Chinese teenager Xiao Zheng sells kidney to buy iPad2 | Mail Online